There's good news and bad for people looking to move to a city that allows medical or recreational use of marijuana. The good: There's no need to give up hope for safe neighborhoods or quality school districts. But living there may not be cheap, either.

BestPlaces.net pulled data on cities in states with laws permitting medical or recreational marijuana use. "We looked for metros that have a combination of a solid economy, plenty of things to do, and a healthy population," said founder Bert Sperling.

Using that data, CNBC then looked for good schools and affordability relative to average incomes in the area. Cities such as Washington, D.C., and Chicago were eliminated because they have made access tough despite having medical marijuana laws.